Learning from Participatory Environmental Impact Assessment of Community-centred Development: The Oxfam Experience

Abstract

This chapter looks at lessons learned in the field of participatory natural resources management by a relatively large non-governmental development organisation, Oxfam GB² and some of its national counterparts. It describes a methodological approach to assessment of environmental impacts of community-centred development and elaborates on the impact of adopting this approach on local people’s livelihoods and environments and on organisational capacities and skills of staff and counterpart staff. It concludes with some assertions about the implications of both ‘participation’ and a poverty focus, which constitutes Oxfam’s core mandate. The chapter presents a picture of ‘learning-inprogress’ and draws on internal data from sometimes sketchy reviews and documentation of projects, wider programmes and of training efforts.